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Charles Bronson (The Magnificent Seven) headlines this above-average low-budget thriller about a veteran L.A. cop in pursuit of a serial killer who stalks women in the nude. Early in the film, Bronson tells his boss (Wilford Brimley) that the killer’s “knife is his penis.” The killer is motivated to kill because women won’t give him attention otherwise, giving 10 to Midnight some provocative psycho-sexual overtones. When the killer targets Bronson’s daughter (Beverly Hills Cop‘s Lisa Eilbacher), Bronson is forced to choose between following the law or going vigilante.
The film spends equal time with both the cop and the criminal. Bronson has an easy-going, effortless charisma about him. His relationships with his daughter and young new partner (Andrew Stevens) are better written than you might expect from a low-budget action flick. Gene Davis (younger brother of Midnight Express‘s Brad Davis) makes for a creepy killer, spending half his screen-time running around naked (with well-placed foreground elements hiding the goods). Since the film was produced by the notorious Cannon Films (run by the wild Menahem Golan and Yorum Globus), director J. Lee Thompson (The Guns of Navarone, Cape Fear) was able to get away with a bit more violence and nudity than other studios at the time.
I like that Bronson’s character isn’t a squeaky-clean cop in this movie. He’s law-abiding up to a point, but when the law proves to slow and cumbersome to save lives, Bronson starts playing dirty — planting evidence — to keep more innocent women from being killed. When the killer targets his daughter and her friends (in one of the highlight sequences), it makes vigilantism all the more tempting for old Chuck. His quiet rage simmers through the third act until the film poses an ultimate moral quandary during the big showdown.
But don’t worry. Chuck won’t let you down.
With Geoffrey Lewis.